


going home

by aelins



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Post-Book 1: King of Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 07:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28347396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelins/pseuds/aelins
Summary: A broken shadow summoner finds his light, despite the winter chill.
Relationships: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	going home

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry this is late! this is for @nyenke on tumblr! hope you enjoy !

It’s late when she gets to the Grand Palace dungeons, so late it’s almost early. 

She clangs her broken fingernails against the bars of his cell. 

“Yes, Alina?” 

She should’ve known he would recognize her. 

“Aleksander,” she uses his name as a weapon, she knows it’s the only true piece of him she keeps, after everything they’ve been through. 

“Don’t--” He seems to shrink in on himself, and she reaches through the bars, trying to touch him. 

“ _ Don’t _ ,” Aleksander repeats but it is a broken and sad shadow summoner staring her in the eyes. 

She takes a sugar cookie, with an absurd amount of icing on it, and hands it to him. “It’s Saint Nikolai Day.” 

He snorts, and takes the sweet treat, “Is there a reason to celebrate it?” 

“I think so,” Alina says slyly. 

“Why because I’m in irons?” 

Alina looks surprised, “I know these chains would not hold you if you did not wish them to. You waited for me to show up.” 

Aleksander looks out his dingy window, and she remembers her last thoughts before he’d passed before she thought she’d lost him forever.  _ A boy’s name, almost forgotten. _

“Alina, I don’t think you realize how weary I am.” 

Alina sits down in the dirt next to him. “I don’t want to talk about weariness.” 

“What do you want to talk about  _ solnishka _ ?” 

She flushes, looking happier than she was just moments ago, “I want to talk about what colors you can’t see the dark, namely… what the hell are we going to do with the horrid eggshell blue Nikolai has painted  _ everything _ ?”

“I don’t comprehend how that would ever be my job--deciding the decor of the Grand Palace, is the King or Queen’s job.” 

A beam of sunlight shoots from Alina’s palm and unlocks his cell. 

She stands and helps him up. Her power had only returned once Mal was dead for years. She’d been powerless for too long. 

Aleksander looks at her, she is small and weak, her power a tiny, riotous thing in her chest. “This… has to be the best Saint Nikolai Day I’ve ever had.” 

Alina shrugs, tears in her eyes, and in a small voice replies, “It’s time for old things to die, and I am so tired of being powerless.” 

Aleksander offers her his arm, and the merzost in the room, the utter quantity of raw magic humming between them, dusts off their clothes and brightens their faces. 

Aleksander marches her out of the Palace dungeons, and yes, there will be plenty to deal with on Christmas morning, mostly a traumatized and annoyed Nikolai, and Zoya? They would deal with her in due time. 

So the Sun Summoner and the Shadow Summoner left the darkness and stepped out into the bright winter sunlight. 


End file.
